jkjk@quads.uchicago.edu (John Kruper) (11/09/90)
I just received a MacIIfx (w/ 4MB Apple RAM, 80MB Apple drive, Apple's
8-24 video card, and Apple's 13in color monitor) and am experiencing
difficulties:
-if, using Monitors in the control panel, I switch to "millions of
colors," I lose all hilighting ability (i.e., no shading, etc.). When I
switch to 256 colors, all seems to be well.
-the machine randomly hangs on me while inside various applications
(i.e., is none-responsive to mouse clicks, command keys, etc.), forcing me
to reboot the machine.
-applications "unexpectedly quit" under what seems to me completely
unsystematic circumstances. I am often given an error ID of "3".
Do these problems sound like hardware problems?? -- system software??
(I've rebuilt the system using locked master discs a number of times now.)
One further piece of history --- on initially setting up the machine, the
internal hard drive was sent unformatted. After using Apple's HD utiltiy
to format the drive, then installing the system software, the machine
would not boot off of the internal drive. A trip back to the dealer
resulted in a new internal drive. Could this have been a related sympton
of the problems I am now experiencing??
I would appreciate any pointers, helpful hints, insights, etc.
Feel free to post to the newsgroup, but I'd appreciate direct E-mail at:
jkjk@quads.uchicago.edu
Thanks much!
John Kruperpeirce@outpost.UUCP (Michael Peirce) (11/10/90)
In article <1990Nov8.171342.7722@midway.uchicago.edu>, jkjk@quads.uchicago.edu (John Kruper) writes: > > I just received a MacIIfx (w/ 4MB Apple RAM, 80MB Apple drive, Apple's > 8-24 video card, and Apple's 13in color monitor) and am experiencing > difficulties: > -if, using Monitors in the control panel, I switch to "millions of > colors," I lose all hilighting ability (i.e., no shading, etc.). When I > switch to 256 colors, all seems to be well. > -the machine randomly hangs on me while inside various applications > (i.e., is none-responsive to mouse clicks, command keys, etc.), forcing me > to reboot the machine. > -applications "unexpectedly quit" under what seems to me completely > unsystematic circumstances. I am often given an error ID of "3". > > Do these problems sound like hardware problems?? -- system software?? > (I've rebuilt the system using locked master discs a number of times now.) I'm not sure this is related, but I was having somewhat similar problems with a new fx I had. It booted up OK, but after a short while bad things began to happen. I tried everything I could think of, video card swaps, new disks, reseating the SIMMs, etc. Finally someone asked me if it had NEC SIMMs inside. I looked and it had 4M of NEC and 4M of Hitachi SIMMs. They advised me to switch the two banks of SIMMs. I did this and the fx has worked like a charm ever since! You only have 4M of memory, but check it they are NEC chips. If they are, try to dig up some non NEC chips to try in your machine... -- michael P.S. I know this sounds crazy, but it worked. Are the NEC chips slightly out of spec? -- Michael Peirce -- {apple,decwrl}!claris!outpost!peirce -- Peirce Software -- Suite 301, 719 Hibiscus Place -- Macintosh Programming -- San Jose, California 95117 -- and Consulting -- (408) 244-6554
jkjk@quads.uchicago.edu (John Kruper) (11/10/90)
Recently, I posted to the net a call for help in diagnosing my "possessed"
IIfx. I received back a request for more specific information regarding
my configuration, etc. I hope the following contains a clue to someone
out there, as this machine is becoming a bit trying!
A short overview of the problem: I can't detect any systematic trends in
when, why, or under what conditions these things happen, but --
applications "unexpectedly quit," often reporting an error ID=3 (have
also seen ID=11);
applications quit after hitting a Cancel button;
the machine gets hung -- becomes unresponsive to mouse clicks or
keyboard commands (though the mouse does track around the screen)
The machine is a IIfx w/ 4MB Apple RAM, 80MB Apple HD, Apple 8/24 video
card, and Apple 13in color monitor.
Other info:
1. system software version: Finder=6.15; System=6.05
2. inits used: At first, I dumped SAM, Gatekeeper, and Wordfinder (a
thesaraus) into the system file. After hearing that some of these might be
causing the problems, I removed them, rebuilt the system, rebooted, and
still
experienced the same problems. Currently, I don't have any inits in the
system, but still am seeing weird happenings.
3. applications used: There are a number, but a sampling (these have all
either unexpectedly quit, failed to launch, or hung the machine) include:
Microsoft Word 4.00; MacIP v4.0; Hypercard 1.2.5; Hypercard 2.0; Mac
Allegro
Common Lisp 1.3.2; Systat 5.0.
4. I always run under Multifinder.
5. The fx is connected to a LocalTalk network (with an SE/30 file server)
which, in turn, is linked to our campus' ethernet backbone. [None of the
other machines on the local net -- mostly IIci's -- experience similar
problems though.]
6. I've used all of our virus protection software (most recent is
Disenfectant 2.3) to look for viruses, but have found nothing.
I hope this helps.. To date, the problems have been more anoyances than
anything else, but I'm just waiting for the time when I lose a piece of
valuable data, etc.!
If you can offer any guidance, it would be --much-- appreciated!
Thanks again.
John Kruper
jkjk@quads.uchicago.edu
Biological Sciences Collegiate Division
University of Chicagoamichiel@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Allen J Michielsen) (11/11/90)
In article <1990Nov8.171342.7722@midway.uchicago.edu> jkjk@quads.uchicago.edu >I just received a MacIIfx (w/ 4MB Apple RAM, 80MB Apple drive, Apple's >8-24 video card, and Apple's 13in color monitor) and am experiencing >difficulties: I just received 3, IIFx's w/8 Mb Ram (4 apple, 4 Mine), 200 MB Maxtor, and the 'NU' enhanced, standard color card & apple display, using the Fx shipped 6.0.5 (?) system right out of the box in a vanilla configuration. Besides the applications that won't work, requiring upgrades due to hardware or (usually) system incompatability problems, the system does like to mysteriously just crash. It is intensly sensative on the scsi port. Even trying to open or insert old disks crashes the system. Then, when trying to close a window that has been moved so it extends partially off the display can/does cause spontaneously crash & burns. The same is especially true as the number of open windows increases. When it runs, it's great, but the speed increase is more than negated by the much increased crash & burns over, say a IIcx. Boy am I a happy camper... One of them has even had the power supply fry when the dealer installed the video card, and another was shipped with a defective mouse. Guess apple is too busy making new products and system versions to actually get what they are doing right the first time. al -- Al. Michielsen, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Syracuse University InterNet: amichiel@rodan.acs.syr.edu amichiel@sunrise.acs.syr.edu Bitnet: AMICHIEL@SUNRISE